News Release: Luke Hartsuyker and his opposition to the Banking Industry Royal Commission

Statement by Andrew Woodward

19 April 2018

The leader in exile of The Nationals, Barnaby Joyce, said last night he was wrong in opposing the Labor’s Banking Industry Royal Commission.

Good.

Does Luke Hartsuyker have the guts to do the same thing and admit he was wrong or does he still think the Royal Commission is a waste of time and money?

Luke Hartsuyker should immediately join his former leader and in saying he got it wrong. Luke Hartsuyker should go a step further and oppose the government’s tax cut for big business which would reduce tax paid by the banks by $7.4 billion over the next decade.

They don’t deserve it. It is obscene. It is rewarding appalling behaviour.

Just ten weeks before the 2016 election, Luke Hartsuyker came out in support of Labor’s push for a Royal Commission into the banks. (Coffs Harbour Advocate, 12 April 2016)

With the election out of the way, Mr Hartsuyker dropped his longtime support and changed his tune. He started opposing a Royal Commission into banks, taking his orders from Turnbull and Morrison, in another example of the Nationals laying down for the Liberals.

As recently as November last year Luke Hartsuyker told Sky News he opposed a Royal Commission into banks:

“The Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker told Sky News on Wednesday the banks had been subjected to a lot of scrutiny by the Turnbull government and it was hard to see how a royal commission would achieve anything. “I think the sorts of recommendations that would come out of a royal commission are the sorts of things that we’re doing now,” he said. “It’s hard to see how the lawyer’s picnic would advance the case of scrutiny on the banks.” (Guardian, 22 November 2017)

Then the Prime Minister announced the Royal Commission on 30 November 2017 and five months later Barnaby Joyce says he was wrong opposing it. Luke Hartsuyker has been silent.

Luke Hartsuyker’s flip-flopping on the Royal Commission into banks once again shows just how out-of-touch he has become. Luke Hartsuyker has become a laughing stock as he swings with the breeze and makes things up as he goes along.

We need a local member who member who stands up for people and not the big banks and other multinationals.

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Acknowledgement of country

Labor acknowledges the Gumbaynggirr,Dunghutti and Birpai peoples, the traditional custodians of the land in and around the federal division of Cowper. We pay respect to elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal people.